No, no I mean it exactly how you think I mean it.

Only it's not going to actually happen, so I don't have to worry about it turning into:facepalm

 

In the Doctorverse, OTP = One True Partnership

 

I'm really not liking the change from the overall story-arc embedded in episodes to the stand-alone adventures that's going on. I know that's what Moffat wants, and I vaguely remember reading somewhere that he was aiming to have each episode stand by itself- but the quality, I think, is degrading.

 

To be fair, he can't win. We've gone from very basic story arcs under RTD, at least some of which counted more as foreshadowing the finale than an actual proper arc, to in-depth arcs that require a fairly hefty knowledge of, at this stage, four or five years of the show, to no arc at all. Fans criticised RTD for the weak plot arcs, then at times it seemed like most of the national media had had a go at the show for being too complex under Moffat. You can understand why he's maybe going "Well, ok, let's give them standalone crazy adventures!" Also, there have been hints at the arc for Clara this last few episodes. Maybe two...

Personally, I agree with you. Plot arcs are good, but I can understand why they're trying something different this year.

 

Can someone tell me if this is right? Because if so...
-quietly murders Moffat-
Article

 

It reads like BS.

 

Yeah that made no sense what so ever.
''It also means the Doctor's time is running out as he can only regenerate 12 times.''

yeah no. It makes no sense for them to paint themselves into a corner as far as the continuation of the show is concerned just for some random plot line in the 50th anniversary episode. That is not a logical thing to do. And this is just speaking from a financial perspective.

 

The way I read it was that Nine, Ten, and Eleven weren't the 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctors respectively, but instead Ten, Eleven, and Twelve. John Hurt would then be the "true" 9th Doctor, which is actually a really neat twist. And it fits with the "Fall of the Eleventh" theme.

Personally, I think the bullshittery in the article has more to do with the journalist who wrote it than any decision Moffat's team made.

There's also the idea that's long been a part of the lore that Time Lords have twelve regenerations to make thirteen lives in all, and to be honest, it's a great idea to have the Doctor confront, challenge, and overcome those limitations, or have to face them in some way. I'm actually really liking the notion that the Doctor had or could have had more potential regenerations Post Time War, but then Time War shenanigans happen in the special that change all this (or threaten to).

 

Yeah... I'm pretty sure the 'Ninth Doctor' bit is just rumor garnered from his costume. That said, he could easily be the 'Ninth Doctor' from Rose/MetaTen's universe.

This is the only spoiler Hurt revealed:

 

While I personally think along similar lines to Khan, one of my friends has suggested another possibility: the Valeyard? It would be intriguing, if a little random.

 

That's very possible. A couple of the spin-off books have already established that the Valeyard is a future regeneration of the Doctor, but that he's also the Doctor's dark alter-ego.

 

Tonight's episode was...disappointing, I think. Not bad in any major way - although I thoroughly hated the young girl; the boy was irritating, but managed at least not to be unpleasant - but I was expecting a hell of a lot more from Gaiman.

The upgrades to the Cybermen worked well, the guest actors were great, particularly Jason Watkins (Webley) and Warwick Davis, Matt Smith...I don't know. I love him as the Doctor, and having him play a slightly different version of that role is always good (I thought his stint as the Ganger!Doctor was one of the highlights of series 6), but it was a bit samey. And it just kinda sank into a standard seige episode by the end, really.

If it had been by anyone else, I'd probably be saying "Yeah, nothing special but it was fun", but coming from Gaiman...yeah. Disappointed.

Still, always next week to look forward to. Here's a prequel to whet the appetite.

Oh, and I think they really missed a trick today. If they'd started broadcasting it a week earlier, they could have had the Doctor's name (maybe) revealed on the 11th. Ah well.

 

The super-fast cybermen was a nice premise. Too bad Gaiman just kinda put it on the backburner after setting it up.

 

This, yeah.

Ideas to improve upon the episode: I'd rather have seen a small platoon of Cybermen than a fucking army 3 million strong. Then go on to imply that the planet itself was being "upgraded", and that the people who went missing were taken to serve as a super-duper all-new core mind and that's what they wanted the kids' brains for. And then we'd have a manageable number of superspeed new!Cybermen duking it out with (still) hopelessly outmatched, untrained soldiers, while the Doctor's doing his super chess match with Mr. Clever... who is being beefed up by the planet Core. I mean, they had that tech in the Library back in Series 4. I don't see how Cybermen can't have a similar level of development.

Same end result and same conflict... but it makes more in-world sense.


Anyway, I'm actually curious as to the section of the Doctor's memories that are locked away, since the new information lends credence to the John Hurt True!Nine rumors going around at the moment.

 

Maybe I need to rewatch, but I saw that as the Doctor locking away memories from Mr Clever there and then, especially about Clara.

 

Which is supported by the Doctor saying that Mr Clever learned what he did about the Time Lords because the Doctor allowed it.

 

So yeah, that was a pretty crappy episode.

Well.

Maybe not crappy crappy. The kids were annoying as fuck, and the 'know it all' attitude of the girl wasn't appealing at all. Again, it was just another episode that you'll never remember once you've watched it.

Next weeks episode seems to be the whole 'name' thing. I certainly hope not, since there's been barely any build up to it at all. I'm wishing this was more like Season 5- at least there was a prevailing theme here. I feel like the next episode is going to come out of nowhere.

 

I think this episode would have worked way better as a two-parter, some interesting ideas but poorly executed, due to probably being forced to fit everything in one episode.

 

Despite my general disappointment with the episode I did quite like the way that the Cybermen were actually presented as a massive threat, if not necessarily to the Doctor at least to normal humans. Every time we've seen them before, it's always been incredibly underwhelming. They're so easily defeated that they've never felt like a real danger like the Daleks.

Seeing the lengths to which the human empire went to stop them was fantastic. The whole destroying a galaxy thing to stop them really gave them a degree of danger that they simply lacked before.

I tend to enjoy episodes where we see how horrific some of the things the Doctor faces actually are. While he deals with most villains of the week with relative ease, it's great seeing how the non-Timelords struggle and fail against the same threats.